There are a wide variety of sealing strips known and used in the prior art. Such sealing strips may be used in many applications such as for weather stripping, insulated doors and windows, such as those found in buildings and on appliances, and in various other applications where a seal between two adjacent surfaces (moveable or immoveable) is desired.
In applications were a seal is desired between two surfaces held in place, it is desirable that a sealing strip maintain a good seal which is uniform throughout the length of the sealing strip. It is also desirable that the strip be resistant to adverse environmental conditions such as heat, water and sun light to which the sealing strip may be exposed, and maintain a seal and notwithstanding such conditions. Known sealing strip materials such as foamed urethane degrade over time when exposed to such environmental conditions.
To do this, it is desirable to provide a flexible and degradation-resistant surface which possess a degree of resilience which is capable of providing a consistent static of force against an opposing surface.
It is also desirable to provide a sealing strip of materials which have heat insulative qualities.
In the instances where a sealing strip is to be applied between two surfaces moveable with respect to one another, it is also important that a sealing strip be adapted to facilitate the movement of such surfaces. It is also desirable that the sealing strip possess overall resilience properties which resist fatigue over several cycles of separating and realigning of the opposing surfaces to which the sealing strip is applied; such as in the case of the opening and closing of a door or a window.
One of the materials often used in insulative sealing is silicone rubber. Silicone rubber has very good resilience and resists the fatigue and environment degradation described above. However, one of the drawbacks to the use of silicone rubber is that it must be applied as a fluid and subsequently cured to form a dimensionally stable material. Because of its flow characteristics in the uncured state, silicone rubber is often difficult to apply in manufacturing processes, particularly in those processes which involve high speed production such as the case in extrusion machinery set ups. Spillage is also a problem inherent to the use of a liquid material in extrusion production. Accordingly, it is difficult to incorporate a silicone rubber portion into an extrudate at rates at which extrudates are typically formed.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to be able to incorporate dimensionally stable silicone rubber portions into a sealing strip construction, particularly those constructions produced by the polymeric extrusion.
Another disadvantage of the use of silicone rubber is that it is generally a more expensive per unit volume than the industrial polymers typically used in the production of a sealing strip. Accordingly, it would be desirable to be able to incorporate silicone rubber into a sealing/spring strip to gain its advantages while minimizing the amount of silicone used in the sealing strip as a whole.
Another application for the present invention is in the field of spring-like devices, with or without reference to insulative or other environmental sealing. Such devices may find application in a wide variety of settings, such as in cabinetry where a spring-like device is used to urge the opening of doors as they are unlatched. Another potential application is in wall protection systems which are designed to absorb shock, such as those used in hospital interiors to protect walls from the impact of wheeled beds, carts, wheelchairs, etc. Many of the desirable properties discussed above are also important to this general area, such as resilience, fatigue resistance, integrity against environmental degradation. It is also desirable in such applications to minimize the amount of silicone rubber used.
In view of the present disclosure and/or the practice of the present invention and its many embodiments, other advantages or the solutions to other problems may become apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art.